Review: The Clarion Call Vol I, Anarchy RisingImaginative Explorations Into a New Kind of Civilization

Cyborg cities. Mobile marketplaces. Native territories. Dusty, ancient prisons. Agoristic lands in the heart of Mexico. Underground bunkers. And an eco-city made up of concentric circles. Breathtaking chases, late night brawls, technological scheming, messages of love and freedom, and the threat of warfare.

All these and more can be found within the pages of The Agorist Writer’s Workshop’s compendium of author-submitted short stories written specifically for this first volume of The Clarion Call: Anarchy Rising.

And what a beginning! The volume grips you right from the start with a heart-wrenching threat and leads you on a multitude of journeys (some in the very same story!) right through to the very end of the book. The writing styles and tones so obviously convey the creative differences and diversity that a real agorist marketplace would: some deeply emotional, some whimsical, some with a multidimensional sense of realism.

If I can sum up the common qualities of the stories in two words, it would be clever and imaginative. There are all kinds of unexpected twists and turns that even I as an experienced, anticipating reader didn’t see coming. Some were mind-blowing in import. I’m sure that any open-minded individual unacquainted with the basic philosophy of anarchy would find them even moreso. This surely is a creative way to introduce readers to the concepts of liberty.

Many of the worlds one is immersed into have nearly the breadth and imagination of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (a tough task for any short story unattached to a larger narrative series!), yet with better thought-out philosophy, economics, and anthropology, and Vernor Vinge’s short tale The Ungoverned (whose full-length novels, I’ve heard, have even more of an immersive quality to them).

There’s much to be said for this impressive start to such a promising series, but the words of the book can speak for themselves, and I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. I would like to say, however, that for the Christian libertarians in the audience, there’s a special “easter egg” tucked away amongst the pages (no pun intended). The volume was relatively short, but definitely satisfying.

Also, this is a clarion call to all those libertarian anarchist writers out there who would like to be a part of this enterprise: the editors are looking for even more submissions! The next volume, Echoes of Liberty, will focus on anarchist societies in history, whether historical or speculative fiction. The guidelines for submissions, due May 1st of this year, can be found here.

You still have almost a month! So, dive into your favorite historial epoch and tap out a few thousand words on an imaginatively fleshed out narrative for the world to see just what liberty looks like through the lens of another time and place. I can’t wait to get started myself.

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A Christian market anarchist with an associate's degree in web design. Specializes in writing about theology and philosophy. He is one of Altar & Throne's co-founders and co-admins. He has an avid interest in economics and seeks to incorporate cultural parallels to libertarian insights. Currently exploring Girard's mimetic theory of desire and violence, and how that relates to the underlying structure of the state. A fan of theologians as diverse as David Bentley Hart, N.T. Wright, Michael Heiser, and Thomas Talbott. Site admin for New Apologetics, and one of the hosts of the Youtube show The Wondering Pilgrims.

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